The Scarlet Assassin

Chapter Forty-Eight

Carter was quiet for a second. He glanced at another poster. "You have to admit, it's a pretty good picture."

I grinned for the first time that day. "Of course it is. It's of me."

Carter laughed, but the laughter was short-lived when we rounded the corner to another street and he ran into the front side of a heavy-set man who snapped, "Watch where you're going!" in Norhib. Carter mumbled an apology, but I made the mistake of glancing up; and the man caught a glimpse of me. His face immediately morphed into shock.

"Hey!" He shouted.

Snapping my head down, I grabbed Carter's arm and pulled him back into the crowd. "Hey! Stop!" People were looking at the man in confusion, but he continued yelling like a mad man, "Stop her! That's the assassin! That's the assassin! Stop her!" Carter and I broke out into a sprint. I started shoving people aside and knocking them to the ground while Carter did his best to just dodge the people without touching them.

But that made him a little slower, slow enough for someone to grab the satchel at his side and yank him back with such force that he fell back. I stopped running immediately after processing what had happened and dashed back to Carter.

The man from before, kneeling on the pavement, had the collar of Carter's shirt bunched in his hands, lifting his back from the ground. His arm was pulled back, fist clenched while Carter's shaking arms were shielding his face.

I grabbed the man's shoulders right before his fist met with Carter's face and kneed his chin. There was an awful cracking noise and the man released Carter's shirt. I kicked him square in his chest. He fell to the ground.

Repositioning myself in between Carter and the man, I took notice of the crowd beginning to form around us. People started muttering to one another in shock.

The man, who I now noticed was dressed like a blacksmith, climbed to his feet quickly and charged at me. He yelled something close to a battle cry as his large, meaty fingers reached for me. I ducked out of his way and hit the pressure point on the back of his neck. He toppled forward and was about to fall flat on his face when his fingers grabbed my cloak at the last second. And before I knew it, I was going down with him.

I was pulled onto my back so hard, my breath was knocked from me. The world went hazy for a moment. It blurred and went in and out of focus.

But what felt like minutes to me was in reality only a few seconds. I sat up and consequently felt my hood fall, revealing now all my features.

From in the crowd, someone said, "It's her! It's that assassin!"

"Grab her!" Another shouted.

"No! Wait for the officers!" I began climbing to my feet, wiping my body free of the rubble.

"But then who will get the million qreez?"

And that made the crowd fall quiet.

But just as quickly as they had stilled, madness erupted the next minute as people began yelling and clambering toward me.

"Fucking hell," I muttered, quickly untying my cloak.

I tossed it onto two people as a distractor while I took care of the people behind me. The first person to reach me got a palm to the throat and collapsed. The man behind him got punched in the jaw and kicked in the knee. A woman then tried to grab me from my side. She got a broken arm and an elbow to the chest. Another was elbowed in the face. He fell onto a man who punched him back, and the two began fighting each other.

I sidestepped an additional man and punched the side of his face before finishing with a swift hit to under his chin. The woman with him was more tentative with her approach. She wanted me to make the first move which quite frankly, I had no fucking time for. I was just about to strike her chest when a large arm wrapped around my throat.